Obviously the Pink Panther isn’t a woman, he’s is just “extra feminine”.

Still though, Family Circus still ain’t funny.

Christopher Cook

There’s a decal out (available through StickerGiant.com) displaying the face of the panther winking but he has been given some rather extended eyelashes. Apparently someone is questioning his sexual preferences as well.

Seems to me that no matter how far we think we’ve progressed in gender equality since the 1950s, we’ve gone in reverse in terms of identifying the sexes by color.
As late as the 1980s, it was quite common for male characters to have pink color coding. Today it’s a thing of the past, identified in the culture with both women and homosexuality in manner that’s frankly sexist on both counts.
How did we get here? Did it have something to do with the 1980s marketing of BarbieÃ¢â‚¬”and, more recently, Disney PrincessesÃ¢â‚¬”to a generation of children who are now young adults?

@OM haha, exactly– the Dysfunctional Family Circus is the only time that comic strip is funny. Same goes for “Garfield without Garfield” altered comics.
Anyway, the Pink Panther is a dude as much as the flamboyant Snagglepuss character is. The pink is just to differentiate them from other cats and hint at some innuendo for those inclined.

Richard

Oh, you kids! Don’t you know ANYTHING about animation?
Oh, right – you watch “Cartoon Network”!

Huckelberry Hound was of course a BLUE dog, which raised some adult, establishment eyebrows in the late 1950’s. Jack Webb’s character mentions it in his 1959 film “30” in the context that a blue dog was out there. No one ever brought up Huck Hound’s gender, however.

When will this tired old strip disappear? I keep thinking about all the talented cartoonist out there who will never get their work seen so we can keep archaic and unfunny strips like this, Marmaduke and Heathcliff alive. Do these guys have 100 year contracts with their syndicates or something??

The Family Circus dog is named Barfy, I’d love to hear Dolly’s commentary on that.

c.tower

Actually, THE SIMPSONS identified the “blue-coded” Huckleberry Hound as gay- and DRAWN TOGETHER “outed” several characters, including pink Snaggletooth and YELLOW Pac-Man (there IS no “Ms. Pac-Man”- he’s a transvestite). They also had a VERY- thinly disguised gay version of ALADIN’s Genie- who was PURPLE. (Of course, they also outed Elmer Fudd, so colour clearly isn’t an issue at ALL…

Jess Price

One of the major newspapers in my city allowed readers to “rank” the current comic strips – and make suggestions for new strips to be added.

Despite my eagerness to get the likes of “Snuffy Smith,” “Family Circus,” and other lame comics removed… readers voted these “classic” strips as their favorites.

I guess that’s the way it goes when your audience is comprised of grandparents…

Dolly: “Jim Davis used to do a comic strip called “Mr. Potato Head” but the competition MASHED it”

Bil, if you like the gag, I wrote it–if you don’t, Ida Know scribed it!

Steve Gattuso

The answer to Dolly is obvious. The Pink panther isn’t a girl, he’s metrosexual…

Killroy McFate

Actually, the Mr. Potato Head strip was written and drawn by CalArts alumnus Brett Koth, who, I believe continues to write and draw the Garfield sunday page. I don’t think Davis does anything except sign checks these days.

All these comments about FC & none about Tweety’s gender? Lately WB’s been peddling the bird as a babe, the better I guess to get in on all the Barbie/Dora action. Back when Friz was still alive I read him quoted as calling the Tweetster a guy – and somewhere inbetween I saw an ad for a Tweety collectible plate that was entirely gender-neutral (that assignment must’ve been fun for the copywriter) – probably during his/her gender-reassignment surgery.

Michael Tuttle

Sorry for making that spiteful post and on top of that claiming to be part of WBC, which I’m not. I tend to overreact to subjects like these too easily but I’m starting to grow out of it. I sometimes revert on my bad days…